Oppenheim, a talented documentarian (Some Kind of Heaven, Ren Faire), basing the film on Luke Dittrich’s seminal Esquire article, “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” takes a kind of interpretive tack with Hansen. As portrayed by the ever-twisty Pattinson, the line between his performative self (thrusting out from behind a literal curtain with the professionally grave, self-important sweep of a high-school principal, or maybe a mortician) and his actual self with his wife and kids, gets smudged into a dark smear, leading him deeper into psychosis. At one point, when one of Hansen’s perp-jump scares goes wrong, he lies down in a fetal position and sinks into a fugue state, unable to be reached by the increasingly agitated Andie.

This film, now the second reboot of a series that has seven previous installments, isn’t terribly interested in pity, conscience, or redemption. In fact, despite the trappings of a more conventional horror caper  — including a protagonist who has just learned he’s going to be a father  — Cregger’s creation has no intention of going soft on us, all the way through the pitiless ending.

I've been engaged by 30-second commercials for schmaltzy Hallmark Channel love stories more deeply.